I PURELY COMMENTARY
Terrorism
Continued from Page 2
a "demographic time bomb."
This refers to the 1.4 million
Arabs in these areas (approx-
imately 600,000 in Gaza and
800,000 in the West Bank), who
came under Israeli military ad-
ministration as a result of the
1967 Six-Day War. They are not
citizens of Israel. The West
Bankers are Jordanian citizens,
while most of the residents of
Gaza are stateless, since even
during the 19 years of Egyptian
rule, Cairo refused to allow them
to travel freely to Egypt. Due to
a high birth rate, their numbers
are increasing rapidly, confron-
ting Israel with a dilemma:
either hold this population in-
definitely without granting
them full political rights, or ab-
sorb them, give them citizenship
and thereby put in question the
very nature of Israel as a Jewish
state.
2. Economic Causes
The growing tension in-
herent in this volatile state of af-
fairs is further exacerbated by a
regional economic downturn.
Although the standard of living
in the territories (especially in
the West Bank) have improved
since 1967, Arabs there are af-
fected by the current Middle
Eastern economic recession.
For instance, it is no longer so
easy for a Palestinian Arab to
find lucrative work in the Per-
sian Gulf states, since this area
has been hit by the world oil
glut, causing a decline in oil
prices. Much of the money that
is available in the Arabian
Peninsula has gone toward
aiding Iraq in the Gulf War.
Workers from Egypt, Jordan,
and other states have been sent
home due to the stagnant
economy.
3. Political Causes
Another underlying factor
distressing the Palestinians is
the current political situation in
the Middle East, especially the
predominant Arab concern with
the Iran-Iraq war and the threat
of the spread of Islamic fun-
damentalism. This has resulted
in the restoration of ties with
Egypt by most Arabs states, in-
cluding Iraq, which had led the
Arab attempts to ostracize
Egypt after it concluded a peace
treaty with Israel. Moreover,
there is at present virtually no
likelihood for resuming and
enlarging the peace process to
encompass the issue of the ter-
ritories. Not long ago there were
hopes for an imminent interna-
tional peace conference. These
hopes have not paled; observers
predict that there will be no
movement until the beginning of
1989 at the earliest, after the
Israeli and American elections
next November. The stalling of
the peace process has caused
frustration among the residents
of the territories; many now feel
that they must help themselves
in order to improve their lot.
46
FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1988
Who was responsible for the
failure to establish a Palestinian
State?
As one reflects on possible
solutions, it is necessary to
realize that the burden must fall
not only on Israel, which is in
control of the territories, but
also on the Arabs, who caused
this state of affairs to materialize
in the first place. In fact, the
Palestinian problem could have
been peacefully solved by the
implementation of the 1947
United Nations General
Assembly Partition Plan, which
proposed creating an indepen-
dent Arab state and an indepen-
dent Jewish State in what was
then British Mandatory
Palestine. The Arabs rejected
the plan, instead choosing to in-
vade the nascent State of Israel.
Interrelated explanations merely
scratch the surface. Tragically, as in so
many other crises, those who should
read them either are not reached or the
unconcern is too embittered to compel
acquaintance with realities. It certain-
ly is to be expected that the media
would make it a responsibility to
become acquainted with the
backgrounds. Certainly the diplomats
in the UN are aware of them. Therefore,
the submission to the propaganda of
violence is so distressing.
All the more necessary to recognize
the need for unity among those who
would not tolerate approach to tactics
that would destroy Israel. The Jewish
State's defense is a humanly continuing
obligation. Protection for Israel as an
ultimate aim will also surely prevent
harm to her embittered antagonists.
Blacks And Jews
Continued from Page 2
interest in the Evansville riot.
The most prominent among blacks
and Jews are introduced in the discus-
sion and fact-gathering. Booker T.
Washington and Stephen S. Wise have
important positive roles in the historic
record. Julius Rosenwald was philan-
tropically among the most distinguish-
ed supporters of causes aiding blacks.
Referring to experiences in the first
decade of the 20th Century, Dr. Peck
pointed out:
If, in the post-Civil War era,
blacks were aware of the
similarities between their ex-
periences and those of Jews, by
the begining of the 20th Century
they were also aware of the
growing differences. Gradually,
blacks became aware that while
they and Jews were minorities,
and shared somewhat parallel
patterns of oppression, their ex-
periences were not comparable.
"Get money, like the Jews"
Booker T. Washington advised
in 1899. . . .
Yet hand-in-hand with the
image of the Jew as economic
and social role model for blacks,
went another image — that of
the Jew as being "different"
from other Americans, as that
A 1964 American Nazi Party demonstration.
group which was expected to
understand the plight of black
America and to respond as ful-
ly as was possible.
Throughout the first decade
of the 20th Century, such a
response was indeed forthcom-
ing. American Jewish leaders
lent their names, their energies,
and their finances to black
causes and linked the fate of
American Jewry in American
society with blacks . .
But As Jews and blacks in-
teracted more frequently and
often less positively in the larger
American cities, as both groups
continued to head in opposite
directions on the ladder of
economic and social success,
and as blacks began to develop
a sense of their own worth, the
bonds of alliance began to grow
slack. By the mid-1930s, blacks
did not need Jews in quite the
same manner as they had at the
beginning of the century, and
Jews did not feel quite as in-
secure in American society and
full of the same sense of mission
which had shaped their earlier
pursuit of social justice.
This was the new development that
commenced rifts, many of which stemm-
ed from blacks' alignments with the
Arab anti-Zionists and anti-Israel pro-
paganda. But there were the positives,
one of the most effective having been
the election of Dr. Joel E. Spingarn, the
Jewish professor of English at Colum-
bia University, as chairman of the board
of the National Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People in 1914.
The call for the creation of the
NAACP in 1909 included Dr. Stephen
S. Wise, Dr. Henry Moskowitz, Rabbi
Emil G. Hirsch and Lillian D. Wald
among the most important propagators
of the movement.
There is this important reference to
Booker T. Washington, whose friendly
approach to Jews is in evidence in the
catalog, and the 1914 tribute therein to
Rosenwald:
Booker T. Washington pub-
lishes an article in The Outlook
entitled "A Jew, the Negroes,
and the Y.M.C.A." in which
Washington praises Julius
Rosenwald, the founder of Sears
and Roebuck, for his philan-
thropic efforts on behalf of
Black Americans. Rosenwald
donated millions of dollars to
found Black educational institu-
tions across the South.
In the period now under discussion,
attitudes toward Jews in their relation
to the interests of the blacks have
special significance in the following
quotations from Peck's recorded records:
Black newspaper, The
Messenger, reacts to the admi-
sions quotas set for Jews and
blacks at Harvard by stating
that "we have no prejudice
against the Jews, but we are
glad to see them being excluded
along with the Negro. Hitting
the Jew is helping the Negro.
Why? Negroes have large
numbers and small money, Jews
have small numbers and large
money?' Together, the two have
large numbers and large
money."
Yiddish-language
The
newspaper, The Forward,
publishes an editorial which
asks. Where is the spirit of
freedom with which our
America is always priding
itself? And where is the holiness
of the Constitution which is so
often mentioned! Monday, the
American people decorated the
graves of those who fell in the
great battle to free the slaves in
America and to free America
from the stain of the shame of
slavery. The slaves are today not
free and on America the stain of
the shame of slavery is still evi-
dent:'
The Hitler era created new
challenges and the emergence of
another confrontation. The blacks made
comparisons in the struggle for justice
and their demands are thus defined by
Peck:
The years 1939-1945 were
years of great worry and
frustration for the American
Jewish community. Anti-Jewish
feeling in America, as reflected
in a number of national public
opinion polls, had never been
higher. The American Jewish
community also found itself
severely frustrated in its efforts
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